/steɪd/, /sted/
OriginFrom an obsolete spelling of stayed, the past participle of stay, used as an adjective.
- Not capricious or impulsive; sedate, serious, sober.
“Put thy ſelfe / Into a hauiour of leſſe feare, ere wildneſſe / Vanquiſh my ſtayder Senſes.”
“The hours of study, the hours of recreation, the sports, the pastimes, the casualties, which in the staider years of life pass without note or comment, alike are wrapped and muffled in the one roseate”
“As for Peter, he was the happiest of the happy, and had sung and whistled so joyously while skating that the staidest passers-by had smiled as they listened.”
- rareAlways fixed in the same location; stationary.
“'Tis not age or height alone / Can secure the staidest throne / From the reach of Change or Death,— […]”
“[I]n a common sailor's life sleep is not a regular thing as we have it on shore, and perhaps that staid glazy and sedate-looking eye, which a hard-worked seaman usually has, is really caused by broken”
Formsstaider(comparative) · staidest(superlative)